Mind if I share a bit?
It's been a rough 10 days. My mil's funeral was yesterday. She was the
last of our parents to leave. (I found myself re-mourning the other loved ones of that generation and was weepy much of the time.) My mil was on a ventilator for the last two weeks in a Chicago hospital. An ordeal for everyone.
And while she was failing more and more, my daughter and I opened and sorted
through nearly 90 years of accumulation. My mil and her sister who lived under the same roof for almost their whole lives never threw out a
greeting card or letter. Not even ones sent by their bank and
insurance companies!
Some of it was great stuff. My daughter found the box of
letters that my in-laws wrote to each other while he served on the USS
Bunker Hill in WWII.
Unfortunately, many other of the letters were in Slovenian. My dh's
grandparents immigrated from Slovenia (it was part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire then and after WWII, it was a part of Yugoslavia) before WWI. I found Staramama's (Slovenian for grandma) brothers' two passports 1913 issued by Franz Joseph of Austria.
PLEASE EVERYONE write the names of people on the back of photographs!
I didn't throw any of the vintage ones out, but it was extremely
frustrating.
Fortunately for us, they had had a flooded basement a few years ago
and they lost half of what they had accumulated. But we still managed
to have 7 solid days of sorting.
We've spent 10 days here in the house in northern IL that will be sold
and today we get to drive home to our lake in the woods. I am so
homesick for WI.
Oh, and we inherited the cat. Mootzie (mutza is Slovenian for cat)
will be going home with us--to our 3 cats (one belongs to our
daughter). Oh, it's going to be a fun homecoming! HHHHIIIIISSSSSSS.
Just wanted to chat and remind you that your last chance to be entered into a drawing for a copy of Her Inheritance Forever is this week and through August 31, 2009. I have been distracted by all this, but I will go through the comments weeks 2-4 and have a drawing for a winner for each week. As you can understand, I've been a bit distracted this month. But I promised to give away 4 copies of my August book and I will! Please be patient.
Well, that's been my week. And it has been good to be with family. Hope you all have a lovely last week of summer!--Lyn
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15 comments:
Not only do you showcase strong women, but you are one yourself. I'm sorry you had such a tough week. Here's hoping the next few weeks will be better (and that there's not too much cat fighting).
so sorry about your mother-in-law, we have lost all our parents also. I am like you I love the old pictures and have done the genelogy on all sets of our family. Beged for copies of pictures I didn't even know about, since I never met my grandparents, I was a very late in life child so, mine was gone when I arrived.
May God bless
mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net
Thanks for your kind words. I am feeling better now that we are home.
Now pray that mil's cat fits in with our 3!
I'm sorry to hear about your Mil! It's always an interesting time sorting through old letters and pictures. I know how frustrating it can be when those old photos don't have names written on the back, those are usually the ones you want to know the most about!!!
I hope kitty settles in well :-)
steelergirl83(at)gmail(dot)com
sorry for your loss; my youngest sister said upon our having to go through the basement of boxes and suitcases full when Mom passed away "I hope I never put anyone through this with my stuff". LOL. Mom did save and she was very crafty so she used many items in her crafts.
I will have to say you are a strong women! So sorry to hear about your MIL. I do know that this takes a lot out of you. My father past away about 11 years a go from a lawn mower accident and my mother about 20 years ago. I still have my in-laws but my FIL is 85 now and not doing well. I know how it is with the photo because we found a few we had no idea who was in the photos. I do try to date mine. Wish you luck with the cats, it may not be a problem.
Wow! Sounds like you have been having a tough time of it. I will certainly keep you in my prayers.
So sorry about you mother-in-law. It is such a difficult thing to deal with, even when "it is time".
Have had the job of going through a household twice and it is no fun. I have boxes of photo's from my aunt's house and very few are labeled. I have no idea who these people are and that generation is pretty much gone. I need to get busy and finish labeling our family photos before I forget.
I'm am sure you are glad to be home and need the peace and quiet of your own space. Hope the cat is settling in. Some times it takes a while when it has been an "only child".
I understand what you are going thru. My father died about 20 years ago and my mom about 2 years ago. When I had to go thru my mom's things, I found that she still had most of dads clothes and every check stub in a Old coffee can that he had ever earned.
But what I enjoyed the most were the few love letters he wrote to her when they were dating and first married.
I also ended up with her little fox terrier (that is not house broke)!!!
I also came across lots of photos in old large photo albums (bound by string) with little white corners on the black pages holding the pictures. Some are so old and NO NAMES!!!
My grand parents are gone and I have no one to ask who they are??? But still, my brother offered to take the pictures home and put them all on a CD. I plan on sending it to all the family with my xmas cards this year...Who knows, maybe they will know who the folks are in the pics???
Hang in there. It is a lot of work, but it will be over soon. Wishing you the best!!!
mitzihinkey at sbcglobal dot com
Again thanks for all the kindness. I had two houses to close up for my own mom but she had little of family significance. So it was easier to throw stuff out, but so MUCH!
Anyway, I think we all have the intention of not leaving such a mess for our children.
I think this common experience has happened because the WWII generation's parents had so little to leave that they didn't realize what they were creating for us to clean up.
And being the Depression generation, they couldn't part with so much that had really no use in their lives--like empty Cool Whip and margarine tubs. I threw out a garbage bag full!
I wonder what our kids will say!
Lyn,
So sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. It's hard losing those we hold dear.
I bet you found some real jewels among all her old papers. I wish I could go back and pick my grandparents' brains. They were born in 1874 and 1876. It boggles my mind to think of all the things I could have learned--if only I'd been interested when they were still living.
Hugs,
fictionfan1[at]cox[dot]net
sorry to hear about MIL.Her Inheritance Forever sounds wonderful.augustlily06(at)aim(dot)com.
Hi Lyn,
Wish I could have been there helping you.
Sorry about you mil. please enter me in your contest, I love your books. thanks AprilR
So sorry to hear about your loss, it's never easy. Take it easy.
Deidre
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